Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Dream: I notice I am small,small
enough to lie inside a dinner tray.

Interpretation: In the dream I'm trying
on the child self that my unconscious has been telling me (in
previous dreams) that I have repressed. I experience the
vulnerability of the child. Not only am I very small, I'm on a
dinner tray, in danger of being eaten.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Dream: A small boy walks up a ramp
and swings from a chandelier. He uses it as a child might use monkey
bars. I am concerned for his safety and work to get him off the
chandelier and back to a safe place. I put him in a box.

Interpretation: This dream comments on
two recent dreams, My Child is Kidnapped and I’m Blind. This dream
tells me that what I'm not seeing (my blind spot) is how my adult
caution has repressed (stolen, kidnapped) my inner child (I've put
him in a box).

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Interpretation: There was more to this
dream, and I wish I could remember it because it might tell me what
it is I’m not seeing. The statement comes from my husband Clark (my
other half). He uses half my name. There are two “halves” in this
dream: my animus (my other half) and half my name. Yet the two halves
are not adding up to a whole, and I’m not getting the complete
picture (I’m blind.)

Sunday, May 20, 2012

All aspects of waking life affect dream
life, including what we read or watch on television.

The Dream: We are outside. I see, off
to the right, waves approaching. “This is the time of the black
waves,” I say. The waves are blue toward the edges; their center
goes from mid-night blue to black. At first I merely watch these
interesting waves; then one very large one breaks over us all,
drenching us (in our nice clothes) and lifting us out of our seats,
moving us toward the shore. Will we stay safely on the shore or is
this a tsunami? I’m not sure.

Interpretation: I had been reading
M.Ester Harding’s book Psychic Energy the night before I had this
dream. Speaking of nature, Harding says: “She is fecund and cruel.
Her law works for the continuation of the race. The young are
important as such, for they represent the next generation. Yet if
many die, there are always more to replace them. As individuals they
are of very little importance in the eyes of Mother Nature, who
creates living creatures in great abundance and then destroys them
all. For this is nature’s way.”*

In the dream I experience the terror
and uncertainty of this grim reality.

*M. Ester Harding, Psychic Energy Its
Source and Its Transformation, with a forward by C.G. Jung, Bollingen
Series X, First Princeton/Bollingen Paperback Edition, 1973:192-193.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Dream: My daughter and I are
walking along a road that leads to the train station. The street and
sidewalk are empty. A car draws near, an old-style sedan with a black
landau top and a white body. The car is going slowly, near us,
behaving oddly enough to make me slightly apprehensive. I look away
for a moment and when I look back my daughter has disappeared. I
stare into the car and see her in the front seat sitting between two
severe-looking adults. The clearest one is an older woman with
gray-black hair and a quiet demeanor. When I call 911 the operator
tells me there is nothing the police can do. She suggests I go talk
to the kidnappers, face to face.

Interpretation: Is my (inner) kid
napping? Has she been stolen from me? On the other hand, I’m seeing
the situation in black and white, no nuanced shades of gray; that
hints that I might be operating under the influence of some
simplistic, childish ideas that I’m unaware of. Who are they, these
somber people in an old-fashioned car? Do I need to talk to (better
understand) the forces that have taken my inner child? Clearly, I’m
on my own with this one; the “authorities” cannot help.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Figuring out who’s who is this dream’s puzzle. The Dream: Mary tells me her friend is interested in dreams and shows me her dream journal. When I see it I feel inadequate. The woman has illustrated every scene of a dream that goes on for seven pages. The illustrations are creative and clever. She has made an illustration of little iced cookies in the shape of animals that represents Mary: Mary doesn’t care for it; she thinks it’s “too sweet,” but I think it’s charming. The illustrations are colorful, playful, and chic at the same time.

Interpretation: The Mary in this dream is a waking life friend. I am the only friend she has who keeps a dream journal. So—does this make me the friend whose dream journal she is showing me? Is she, in fact, showing me my own dream journal? And if she is, why do I feel inadequate when I see it? This leads to the next identity puzzle: is Mary actually Mary, or is she standing in for someone else? As an old friend she stands in for someone from my past. Who, I have to ask myself, in my past reacted to my work in a judgmental way? This leads me to the inevitable conclusion that the Mary in my dream stands in for my inner “mother.” The seven pages and the iced cookies hint at the era the dream evokes: when I was seven years old. A hopeful sign: I stand up for myself, disagreeing with Mary’s (mother’s) assessment of my artwork.